We begin with a belated celebration of a special day!
From RT:
Theater of Absurd: Happy Data Protection Day…oh, and we spy on you!
Program notes:
The latest leak from Edward Snowden suggests it was Britain’s cyber-spy base GCHQ that showed America’s NSA how to monitor Facebook and Twitter without consent. That’s as Europe marks Data Protection Day – which is supposed to show EU citizens how to keep their online data away from prying eyes. RT’s Polly Boiko looks at how effective that’s likely to be.
From the Associated Press, welcome to the Hall of Infinite Regress:
US looks at ways to prevent spying on NSA spying
As the Obama administration considers ending the storage of millions of phone records by the National Security Agency, the government is quietly funding research to prevent eavesdroppers from seeing whom the U.S. is spying on, The Associated Press has learned.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has paid at least five research teams across the country to develop a system for high-volume, encrypted searches of electronic records kept outside the government’s possession. The project is among several ideas that could allow the government to store Americans’ phone records with phone companies or a third-party organization, but still search them as needed.
Under the research, U.S. data mining would be shielded by secret coding that could conceal identifying details from outsiders and even the owners of the targeted databases, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with researchers, corporate executives and government officials.
RT gives instruction:
GCHQ taught NSA how to monitor Facebook, Twitter in real time – Snowden leak
British intelligence officials can infiltrate the very cables that transfer information across the internet, as well as monitor users in real time on sites like Facebook without the company’s consent, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
The internal documents reveal that British analysts gave instruction to members of the National Security Agency in 2012, showing them how to spy on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in real time and collect the computer addresses of billions of the sites’ uploaders.
The leaked documents are from a GCHQ publication titled ‘Psychology: A New Kind of SIGDEV’ (Signals Development). Published by NBC News on Monday, the papers detail a program dubbed ‘Squeaky Dolphin,’ which was developed for analysts working in “broad real-time monitoring of online activity.”
The Guardian opines:
Huge swath of GCHQ mass surveillance is illegal, says top lawyer
Legal advice given to MPs warns that British spy agency is ‘using gaps in regulation to commit serious crime with impunity’
GCHQ’s mass surveillance spying programmes are probably illegal and have been signed off by ministers in breach of human rights and surveillance laws, according to a hard-hitting legal opinion that has been provided to MPs.
The advice warns that Britain’s principal surveillance law is too vague and is almost certainly being interpreted to allow the agency to conduct surveillance that flouts privacy safeguards set out in the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
The inadequacies, it says, have created a situation where GCHQ staff are potentially able to rely “on the gaps in the current statutory framework to commit serious crime with impunity”.
Gettin’ outa Dodge with the Buenos Aires Herald:
British spy chief accused by Snowden leaks will step down at year end
The British spy chief whose agency was accused in documents leaked by former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden of playing a principal role in mass Anglo-US surveillance will step down at year end, Britain’s Foreign Office said today.
The leaks detailed the close cooperation of Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency with the US National Security Agency (NSA), and embarrassed and angered the British government and its spy chiefs.
Iain Lobban, 53, has served as GCHQ’s director for six years.
“Iain Lobban is doing an outstanding job as Director GCHQ,” said a spokeswoman. “Today is simply about starting the process of ensuring we have a suitable successor in place before he moves on, planned at the end of the year.”
MIT Technology Review has a how-to:
How App Developers Leave the Door Open to NSA Surveillance
U.S. and U.K. surveillance of smartphone users has been helped by mobile developers—few of whom bother to adopt basic encryption.
News that the National Security Agency has for years harvested personal data “leaked” from mobile apps such as Angry Birds triggered a fresh wave of chatter about the extent of the NSA’s reach yesterday. However the NSA and its U.K. equivalent, GCHQ, hardly had to break much technical ground to hoover up that data. Few mobile apps implement encryption technology to protect the data they send over the Internet, so the agencies could trivially collect and decode that data using their existing access to Internet networks.
Documents seen and published by the New York Times and Guardian newspapers show that the NSA and GCHQ can harvest information such as a person’s age, location, and sexual orientation from the data sent over the Internet by apps. Such personal details are contained in the data that apps send back to the companies that maintain and support them. This includes data sent to companies that serve and target ads in mobile apps.
“This is evidence of negligent levels of insecurity by app companies, says Peter Eckersly, technology projects director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Eckersly says his efforts to persuade companies to secure Web traffic shows widespread disregard for the risks of sending people’s data over the Internet without protections against interception. “Most companies have no legitimate reason” not to secure that data, says Eckersly. “Often the security and privacy of their users is so far down the priority list that they haven’t even thought about doing it.”
The Guardian squawks:
Angry Birds firm calls for industry to respond to NSA spying revelations
Rovio rethinks relationship with ad platforms
CEO tells users it was not complicit in surveillance
‘We do not collaborate or share data with spy agencies’
Angry Birds Spy agencies can collect sensitive user data from ‘leaky’ smartphone apps ranging from basic technical information to gender and location.
Rovio, the Finnish software company behind the Angry Birds game, has announced it will “re-evaluate” its relationship with advertising networks following revelations that the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ have the capability to “piggyback” on the private user data they collect.
On Monday, the Guardian, New York Times and ProPublica revealed that the US and UK spy agencies had built systems that could collect data from “leaky” smartphone apps, ranging from basic technical information to gender and location. Some apps mentioned in the documents collected more sensitive information, including sexual orientation of the user.
In a statement released in the wake of the story, Rovio’s chief executive said the company would examine its business relationships, but also called for the wider industry to respond to spy agencies’ use of commercial data traversing the web.
The Guardian reassures Down Under:
Microsoft rules out ‘back door’ access to MPs’ electronic communications
Officials assured that US agencies do not have unauthorised entry to Australian parliamentary IT operating systems
Parliamentary officials say Microsoft has given some assurances that electronic communications by MPs are not being accessed by American intelligence agencies through a “back door” in the IT operating systems.
Last November during a Senate estimates hearing a senior parliamentary official left open the prospect that parliamentary communications in Australia could be monitored by US intelligence through a “back door” provided by Microsoft operating systems.
The lack of clarity and the concern about the broad sweep of electronic surveillance and intelligence sharing, undertaken through the “5-Eyes” partnership of the US and its allies, prompted Greens senator Scott Ludlam to pursue the issue by putting further questions on notice.
Security Clearance gets intense:
Homeland Security details Super Bowl safety plan
More air marshals and behavioral detection officers, radiological detection teams and random baggage checks at transit hubs are among the security measures the federal Homeland Security Department will deploy in the next few days to help local police in New Jersey and New York secure the Super Bowl.
The game will be played at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey’s Meadowlands area just outside New York City. The stadium’s location near a major airport and busy commuter train lines presents security challenges. Unlike audiences for other championship games, spectators of Super Bowl XLVIII will rely heavily on mass transit.
Homeland Security officials say that federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation will deploy hundreds of employees to help New Jersey and New York police secure what’s been officially designated “an event of national significance.”
Drone-saving with the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Obama said to rescue spy aircraft from budget ax
In a surprising reversal, Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft is now seen as having a strong shot at avoiding the Pentagon’s ax when President Barack Obama sends his proposed fiscal 2015 budget to Congress in March, a person familiar with the matter said.
The Air Force said in 2012 that it reluctantly favored scrapping the Global Hawk, one of whose production facilities is just outside Biloxi, Miss., in favor of Lockheed Martin’s U-2 spy plane.
But increasing demands for drones to help the service fulfill its high-altitude surveillance mission may have swung things in the opposite direction.
The Guardian loses eyes in the sky:
US border patrol drone crashes off California coast
Drone part of fleet that patrols Mexico border
Crew crashed $12m drone after mechanical problem
An American drone that is part of a fleet that patrols the border with Mexico has crashed off the coast of southern California.
Customs and Border Protection said the drone was looking for drug and people smugglers when a mechanical problem developed about 20 miles south-west of San Diego late on Monday. Spokesman Mike Friel said the Arizona-based crew operating the drone decided to crash it in the Pacific ocean.
The $12m surveillance drone was part of a fleet of 10 the Department of Homeland Security uses to patrol the border. It was just one of two maritime Predator B drones equipped with radar specifically designed to be used over the ocean.
USA TODAY drones on:
At nation’s doorstep, police drones are flying
Just across the U.S. border, drones are making an impact on police efforts
Just across the border from the United States, police have begun using drones carrying video cameras to patrol residential neighborhoods and watch over parts of the city often visited by Americans.
Tijuana’s use of low-altitude unmanned aircraft for law enforcement surveillance, in darkness as well as daylight, appears to far exceed what state and local police agencies have been permitted to experiment with in the United States.
Unburdened by the sort of aviation restrictions and privacy concerns that have slowed domestic U.S. drone use, Tijuana police recently purchased three specially configured commercial drones and are testing their use in flight now, says Alejandro Lares, the city’s new chief of police.
He says he hopes to put them into full normal operation within weeks.
MintPress News seeks to disambiguate:
Vague Language In MN Drone Bill Could Affect Privacy Rights
Before drone use by the masses takes off, lawmakers and privacy advocates say there needs to be rules on when and where the technology can be used.
In order to make sure the rules for using a drone are as clear as possible, Minnesota state Rep. Brian Johnson, a Republican, has reintroduced legislation clarifying when law enforcement can use the technology in the state.
Although drones were first used by the U.S. military abroad, local law enforcement officials, farmers, journalists and hobbyists have all begun to express interest in using drones for various reasons. But before drone use by the masses takes off, lawmakers and privacy advocates say there needs to be rules on when and where the technology can be used.
One of the biggest areas of concern is law enforcement’s use of the new technology.
From The Observer, it finally happens:
North Dakota Cow Thief Is First American Arrested, Jailed With Drone’s Help
A SWAT team also got involved in the armed standoff.
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s a Predator drone finding you because you wouldn’t give your neighbor his cows back after they wandered onto your property.
Rodney Brossart, the farmer from North Dakota, was arrested after being located by Predator drone, Forbes reports. Sentenced yesterday, he is the first American to be sent to the clink thanks to drone assistance.
In June 2011, Forbes reports, police attempted to arrest him because he wouldn’t return the three cows that had grazed onto his property. This resulted in “an armed standoff between Brossart, his three sons and a SWAT team” on his property. It ended only after the family of perps was located by a Predator drone borrowed from Customs and Border Patrol.
Nextgov deceives:
Twice As Many U.S. Missileers Now Implicated in Cheating Probe
The number of U.S. nuclear missile-launch officers caught up in a probe into cheating on proficiency exams has roughly doubled in size, the Associated Press reports.
The news service cited unidentified U.S. officials as sources of the report.
The Pentagon revealed earlier this month that 34 Air Force nuclear missile officers were under investigation for either cheating on an autumn 2013 proficiency test or for having knowledge of the misconduct and not reporting it.
It is not yet clear what roles the approximately 30-plus additional Minuteman 3 operational officers allegedly had in the cheating scandal.
And Deutsche Welle discovers the expected:
US whistleblower laws offer no protection
The White House says that Edward Snowden should have reported his concerns within the NSA, instead of revealing surveillance programs to the press. But who exactly do US whistleblower laws protect?
For years, would-be whistleblowers in the US intelligence community had no legal protections to shield them from retaliatory measures by their superiors. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 covered most of the federal government with the glaring exception of the intelligence agencies.
In an effort to close this legal gap, Congress passed the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA) a decade later. The law covers employees and contractors at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) as well as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
But according to Thomas Drake, the act failed to adequately protect whistleblowers from retaliation. A former senior executive at the NSA, Drake blew the whistle on a failed surveillance program called Trailblazer. He used what the government calls “proper channels” to express his concerns about the program’s exorbitant cost and its lack of privacy protections, reaching out to his immediate supervisor, the office of the inspector general, and the congressional intelligence committees.
“I was reprised against severely within the proper channels,” Drake told DW. “I was identified as a troublemaker.”
SecurityWeek sounds the alert:
Canada Privacy Czar Warns Against Spies Trawling Social Media
Canada’s interim privacy commissioner on Tuesday urged lawmakers to crack down on government spies who trawl without cause on social media websites to gather people’s personal data.
“It is our view that (government) departments should not access personal information on social media sites unless they can demonstrate a direct correlation to legitimate government business,” said Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier.
In a special report to Parliament, Bernier noted that technical capabilities for surveillance have “grown exponentially” in the digital age.
After the jump, the latest Asian zone, militarization, coalescing coalitions, and saber-rattling news, plus Aussie military austerity, Orwell in Sochi, Mexican vigilantes legalized, corporate agent recruiting, financializing insecurity, and MSM containment. . .
China Daily schools:
Japan should learn from Germany: US expert
Amitai Etzioni, an Israeli-American sociologist who was a child in Germany when the Nazis rose to power in 1933, has a bit of advice for Japan.
The 85-year-old said the best thing Japan could do is sending 200 public intellectuals and political leaders to Germany to see what it is like for a country to face its past, come to terms with it, make it part of their schools and army, and never let it happen again.
“I was born as a Jewish child in Nazi Germany and I have some feelings about countries dealing with their past,” Etzioni told a group on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington.
A renowned professor of international affairs at George Washington University, Etzioni said Germany has recognized its past, apologized for the atrocities, made amends, and educates its children and army every year about what went wrong in the nation’s history.
“Unlike Japan, they faced their past, came to terms with it and learned from it. Japan should do the same,” said Etzioni, a senior adviser to the White House from 1979 to 1980 and who, in 2001, was named among the top 100 US intellectuals.
The Japan Daily Press gets blowback:
Japanese broadcaster NHK receive over 1,000 negative comments over president’s ‘comfort women’ remarks
Japanese public broadcaster NHK has apparently been bombarded with critical comments – as of writing numbering over 1,000 – protesting NHK President Katsuto Momii’s remarks regarding World War II’s infamous “comfort women”. This is apart from the stinging tirade South Korea has put out since Momii’s comments were made at his inaugural press conference on Jan. 25, saying that the issues surrounding “comfort women” – the common term for Asian women who were coerced into sex slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII – existed in all such events involving armed conflict.
Sources said that two days after Momii let lose his controversial speech, NHK has received over 1,000 complaints and protests via telephone and other communication platforms, with the critical messages coming from across Japan. To make matters worse for the already embattled broadcaster, a citizens group called “NHK o Kanshi Gekirei Suru Shichosha Community” (Viewers’ community for monitoring NHK) had filed a complaint demanding for Momii’s resignation over his comments.
While the Japan Times stays mum:
Abe in Diet mum on storm over NHK boss’ ‘comfort women’ stance
Seeking to avoid a political minefield, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declined Tuesday to comment on NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii’s recent explosive remark on wartime sexual servitude, saying only that he hopes the public network will “maintain fair and neutral broadcasting” by defying all external political pressure.
“I don’t think I’m in a position to comment on individual remarks made by the top (executive) of a broadcast organization,” Abe told lawmakers during a plenary session of the Lower House, answering questions from Democratic Party of Japan President Banri Kaieda.
“I hope the chairman and NHK employees will maintain fair and neutral broadcasting without giving in to any political pressure,” Abe said.
JapanToday gets revisionist:
Japan revises teaching manuals, says disputed islands its territory
Japan said on Tuesday it was revising teaching manuals to make clear that two sets of remote islands at the center of disputes with China and South Korea are integral parts of its territory, prompting protests from an angry Seoul.
Japan’s ties with Seoul and Beijing are increasingly strained over a host of issues, including the territorial rows and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit late last year to the Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with millions of war dead.
The conservative Abe has said he wants to revise Japanese history to have a less apologetic tone, a sensitive topic for Asian neighbors such as South Korea and China, where memories linger of Japanese aggression before and during World War Two.
Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said the ministry was revising the manuals to teach “properly” about Japanese history and that it would make diplomatic efforts to explain the move to Japan’s neighbors.
“It is extremely important that the children who will bear our future can properly understand our territory,” he told a news conference.
Want China Times displays:
South China Sea archives open in Hainan in bid to boost claims
The historical records of the South China Sea were opened to the public in China’s southernmost province of Hainan on Monday.
The archives have about 30,000 documents on the South China Sea accumulated from archives, libraries and academic institutions from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and other countries.
The archives focus on material uncovered when the Republic of China on the mainland (1912-1949) was trying to unearth historical and legal evidence for China’s territorial claims to the South China Sea, said Wu Shicun, head of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS), which administers the archive
And Kyodo News takes us to Korean crises:
Japanese, N. Korean officials may have had secret meeting in Hanoi
Senior officials of Japan and North Korea might have met in Hanoi recently in what could be their first contact since the launch in December 2012 of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.
If the meeting did take place, Tokyo is almost certain to have asked Pyongyang to resume its probe into the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the past.
Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, accompanied by Keiichi Ono, chief of the bureau’s Northeast Asia Division, visited the Vietnamese capital for two days from Saturday, and a North Korean official was also there last weekend, according to the source.
Channel NewsAsia Singapore minimizes:
US scales back military exercise with South Korea
The US military is scaling back an annual exercise with South Korea next month and will not deploy an aircraft carrier or fly strategic bombers for the drill, officials said on Tuesday.
Last year Washington put on a show of military might for the exercise in response to saber-rattling by North Korea. But the United States is adopting a lower profile this time around, apparently due to some conciliatory steps by Pyongyang.
“There is no carrier involvement in exercise Key Resolve this year,” a US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
In addition, there were no plans to send out nuclear-capable bombers as in last year’s drill, the official said.
South China Morning Post restricts:
U.S. envoy rules out six-way talks on North Korean nukes
Beijing, Washington still split on approach to weapons dispute after visiting diplomat cites no meaningful steps by Pyongyang
A senior United States diplomat ruled out the quick resumption of the six-nation talks on North Korea yesterday, citing no sign from Pyongyang that it intends to halt its nuclear programme.
Glyn Davies, the US special representative for North Korea, said after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei , and Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui , that both China and the US “share an interest” in resuming the talks. But he said Pyongyang has to show its commitment to end nuclear proliferation.
“The principal obstacle has been the lack of not just interest, but meaningful steps by North Korea to demonstrate that they understand that it has to move up to its obligations and commitments,” Davies told reporters. “We call on North Korea to take seriously its obligations.”
The Asahi Shimbun opens:
INSIGHT: Abe’s shrine visit blew Japan-S. Korea efforts for summit sky-high
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine shattered the painstaking groundwork Japanese and South Korean foreign policymakers were laying for a bilateral summit.
While the United States is calling on its two Asian allies to mend broken ties, Japanese officials are bracing for another possible haymaker from Abe.
“Far from restoring relations, the prime minister may visit the shrine again,” a government source said.
From the Asahi Shimbun, a companion story:
ASAHI POLL: 46% of voters oppose prime minister’s visit to Yasukuni
Forty-one percent of voters have no problem with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to war-related Yasukuni Shrine in December, but 46 percent say he should not have gone, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.
Abe’s visit to the Tokyo shrine honoring the war dead triggered a sharp backlash from China and South Korea because 14 Class-A war criminals are also enshrined there. Russia and the United States were among countries that leveled strong criticism at Abe for exacerbating already strained relations with Japan’s two powerful Asian neighbors.
Fifty-one percent of the respondents said Abe should take the criticism seriously, but 40 percent said it is no big deal, according to the nationwide telephone survey carried out Jan. 25 and 26.
The Japan Times loosens up:
Plan gives SDF medics freer hand under fire
Critics warn of path to legal basis for overseas military involvement via collective self-defense
The government is looking to grant Self-Defense Forces paramedics more discretionary authority in treating wounded service members if Japan comes under attack.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants the SDF to play a greater security role abroad as part of his drive to redefine the nation’s security framework, a government source said Monday, adding the government hopes to establish a more effective logistic support system. He has also been urging that the ban on collective self-defense under the current interpretation of the Constitution be lifted.
Under the new plan, the Defense Ministry will allow SDF paramedics within five years to perform such medical procedures as creating an airway by cutting into the trachea and inserting a needle into the chest to release air and fluid, according to the source. But the paramedics will not be allowed to treat injured civilians.
From JapanToday, an ominous escalation:
India close to buying Japan-made military aircraft in $1.65 bil deal
India is set to become the first country since World War Two to buy a military aircraft from Japan, helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe end a ban on weapons exports that has kept his country’s defense contractors out of foreign markets.
The two countries are in broad agreement on a deal for the ShinMaywa Industries amphibious aircraft, which could amount to as much as $1.65 billion, Indian officials said on Tuesday.
However, several details need to be worked out and negotiations will resume in March on joint production of the plane in India and other issues. New Delhi is likely to buy at least 15 of the planes, which are priced at about $110 million each, the Officials said.
Want China Times does a deal:
Saudis mull joining development of China’s Xiaolong fighter
Saudi Arabia is considering cooperation with China and Pakistan in the development and production of the FC-1 Xiaolong multirole fighter jet, also known as the JF-17 Thunder, according to Military Parade, a website covering defense issues based in Russia.
General Raheel Sharif, the chief of staff of Pakistan’s armed forces, ordered a JF-17 aerial maneuver display to welcome a military delegation from Saudi Arabia led by the country’s deputy defense minister Prince Salman bin Sultan on Jan. 20, the site reported. The website’s source said the representatives from the Royal Saudi Air Force have been eager to learn the details of the production of the JF-17 in Pakistan since 2013. The fighter was jointly designed by China and Pakistan.
As Pakistan is a major military partner to both China and Saudi Arabia, Military Parade said the South Asian country plays a key role in introducing Chinese weapons system to members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In addition to providing advanced aircraft, tanks and submarines to these nations, Pakistan is also able to transfer Chinese military technology.
Jiji Press offers an opinion:
China’s Air Defense Zone Not Violating U.S. Security: Official
The United States does not think China has violated U.S. security through a series of actions in Asia, including the establishment of an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.
“At this juncture, they have not done anything that we recognize as to be a violation of our national security,” Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michael Lumpkin told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
“I don’t see that U.S. national security concerns are being directly challenged,” he said of China’s air defense zone including airspace over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, repeated entries into Japanese waters around the islets and introduction of fishing restrictions in the South China Sea.
But no sooner had the Pentagon exonerated China than Obama’s pick for ambassador to Beijing did the opposite. From JapanToday:
Obama ambassador pick embraces criticism of China
Speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Max Baucus said he wants to help the U.S. build a more equitable economic relationship with China while encouraging the Asian giant to act responsibly as it emerges as a global power.
“I have become a firm believer that a strong geopolitical relationship can be born out of a strong economic relationship, which often begins with trade,” said Baucus, a Democrat.
But under questioning from fellow senators, Baucus acknowledged that the U.S. has a complicated relationship with China, one that extends beyond economic issues.
Senators were especially concerned that China declared an air defense zone over the East China Sea in November. The U.S., Japan and other countries have denounced the zone and said they would ignore China’s demands that their military aircraft announce flight plans, identify themselves and follow Chinese instructions.
JapanToday grows testy:
China visa woes for New York Times as government ups pressure
The government is intensifying efforts to control foreign media coverage of China, blocking websites, harassing reporters trying to cover trials of activists in Beijing and thwarting efforts by The New York Times to station new journalists on the mainland.
The government under President Xi Jinping has taken an increasingly hard line on controlling information within the country as its traditional means of doing so come under threat from social media and mobile Internet messaging services.
Although foreign media reports are aimed mostly at audiences outside China, the moves against international journalists reflect both wariness of their reports seeping into the domestic audience and sensitivity about the country’s reputation abroad. This is especially so following reports in recent years about the wealth accumulated by relatives of top Communist Party leaders.
Want China Times arms:
PLA may have 600 nuclear warheads in 10 years: Russian expert
While claiming that the People’s Liberation Army is unable to compete against the United States in a full-scale nuclear war, Vasiliy Kashin from the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies stated that China has the ability to wipe Japan from the face of the Earth with its projected arsenal of at least 600 nuclear warheads in ten years’ time, reports the Voice of Russia.
China does not have enough advanced ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and strategic bombers to match the United States, Kashin said the only way the country can defend itself from a nuclear attack is to accumulate as many warheads as it can. If the current trend continues, the PLA will have at least 600 nuclear warheads in the next 10 years, Kashin said — more than Great Britain and France but fewer than the United States and Russia.
With the United States reducing the number of its warheads, it is conceivable that China may have the same number at some point in the future, Kashin said. But if China is unable to threaten all the major cities in the continental United States, its warheads are still capable of completely destroying US allies in the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan and South Korea since the DF-31A missile with the range to reach those nations entered service with the PLA back in 2006.
Jiji Press provokes:
Russian Nuclear-Capable Bombers Fly near Japan
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday two Tu-95 strategic bombers that can carry nuclear missiles have conducted training flights over the Pacific Ocean and the Okhotsk Sea.
The flights led Japan to scramble Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets, but the Russian planes flew over the high seas and did not violate Japanese airspace, the ministry said.
The two Tu-95 bombers flew for more than nine hours after taking off from the Ukrainka air base in the Amur region in Russia’s Far East. The Russian planes flew over waters off the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin.
And The Verge gets Orwellian:
Spy games: behind Russia’s massive Olympic surveillance program
Extensive monitoring program is geared toward terrorists, but critics say the Kremlin has gone too far
The Sochi Winter Games are already the most expensive Olympics on record, and they’re shaping up to be the most watched, as well — not by spectators or television viewers, but by the Russian government.
Amid heightened security concerns and terrorist threats, Russian security forces have constructed a powerful surveillance system designed to monitor the movements and communications of virtually everyone on the ground at Sochi. The aim is to deter attacks and unrest through blanket monitoring, though there are fears that the Kremlin is going too far.
From News Corp Australia, austerity:
Australian troops going to the Middle East after March this year will be up to $19,000 worse off
STRIPPING back allowances for “warlike” service in Afghanistan and the Middle East has been described as “perfectly reasonable” by Tony Abbott.
“The nature of service … has changed,” the Prime Minister told 2GB today.
“Until the end of last year a lot of our forces in Afghanistan were in the field.”
Mr Abbott said he supported the decision, but it was made by “military brass” not him.
Internal security closer to home and an sudden shift from the Christian Science Monitor:
Knights Templar cartel beware? Mexico strikes deal with vigilantes.
Mexico and self-defense groups reached an agreement this week allowing vigilantes to participate in local police departments or form temporary military units. Is it setting a dangerous precedent?
Nearly a year after vigilante groups decided to go it alone against a growing presence of drug cartels in the western state of Michoacán, group leaders accepted an offer from the federal government to join formal law enforcement efforts.
The agreement this week aims to contain the advance of informal self-defense groups, which entered at least 15 communities over the past 11 months in an attempt to expel members of the Knights Templar. The drug cartel has been accused of crimes throughout the state, ranging from rape to kidnap to extortion – despite proclaiming a quasi-religious creed.
“It’s a vote of confidence in the government from the self-defense groups, and from the authorities in the self-defense groups,” Alfredo Castillo, federal commissioner for security in Michaocán, told MVS radio this morning.
Results were immediate. From the London Telegraph:
‘Knights Templar’ Mexican drug cartel leader captured while hiding in wardrobe
Mexico announces deal to merge anti-cartel armed militias into police force as drug gang chief is seized
Mexican security forces have captured the second-in-command of a powerful drug cartel as the country incorporates heavily-armed civilian vigilante groups into special police units.
Dionisio Loya Plancarte, known as “El Tio” (“The Uncle”), who had a 30 million peso (£1.36 MILLION) bounty on his head, is the most senior member of the Knights Templar to be detained.
From the Daily Dot, enlisting agents:
Facebook wants you to do its dirty work and ask your friends for more personal
Facebook is continuing the global roll-out of a feature it debuted last year: if you look through a Facebook friend’s information and see something missing, like a phone number or email address, you’re now prompted to ask that friend to give you this information. The friend is then sent a message asking to provide these personal details.
If you’re the information-requester, Facebook will straight-up tell you to ask for the withheld information when you’re looking at a friend’s profile. . .
This feature does not make things easier for users. It makes things easier for Facebook, though, since the company is essentially prodding users to ask for the information it wants — and then guilting other users into sharing information they clearly didn’t want to share that much to begin with — otherwise they would’ve shared it already. This feature, at best, assumes that Facebook users are oblivious to what they’re sharing. At worst, it assumes it can manipulate Facebook users into sharing information they previously chose not to.
From BBC News, hints of things to come:
Tony Abbott: Broadcaster ABC on ‘everyone’s side but Australia’
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticised national broadcaster ABC for “taking everyone’s side but Australia’s”.
Mr Abbott said the publicly-funded broadcaster should show “some basic affection for the home team”.
The ABC has been at the forefront of reports on abuse claims from asylum seekers and reports that Australia had spied on Indonesia.
The ABC had no immediate comment on Mr Abbott’s statements.
For our final item, the Christian Science Monitor financializes:
Israel hopes to cash in on the world’s cyber insecurity
Incidents like Target’s electronic payment hack and the Stuxnet virus have driven home the vulnerabilities in a connected world. Israel reckons that it has the answer.
“The big problem of the world can become Israel’s major economic opportunity of the next 10 years,” said Erel Margalit, a prominent venture capitalist and chairman of Israel’s parliamentary task force on cyber protection, speaking at the international CyberTech 2014 conference in Tel Aviv yesterday.
Israel’s cyber edge
The full extent of Israel’s cyber prowess, and its ability to leverage that into economic growth, remains to be seen. But it has invested heavily in becoming a global leader.
At CyberTech, which was attended by 450 government and industry leaders from around the world, including a large contingent from the US Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Netanyahu yesterday unveiled a new cyber complex in Beersheva, named CyberSpark.
